Canadian telecom complaints drop 17 per cent

Canadian complaints over Internet and telecom services dropped 17 per cent in the past year, according to a report released today by the Commissioner for Complaints for Telecommunications Services.

Bell topped the complaints list, accounting for just over 32 per cent of all complaints received. British Columbia-based Telus saw its complaint numbers decline for the third consecutive year, with 653 complaints among its 11 million customer connections covered by the CCTS complaint service – or 5.76 per cent of the total complaints received.

There were a total of 11,340 complaints received by the Commissioner, a not-for-profit organization funded by service providers under a mandate from the Canadian Radio-Television Commission that requires phone, Internet and telecommunications companies to participate. Of those, the Commissioner reported 87 per cent were successfully resolved.

Billing errors for wireless services accounted for the highest number of complaints, followed by contract disputes and service delivery complaints. Internet access complaints accounted for 3,315 complaints, with the 1,440 of those billing errors.

Bell led the complaints list, with 3,651 complaints or 32 per cent of all the complaints received. It was followed by Rogers Communications with 2,379 or 21 per cent of the complaints and by Fido and Virgin Mobile Canada.

Telus was fifth on the list, with its 653 complaints representing a disproportionately low percentage of overall complaints, even though the carrier is the second largest in Canada, behind Rogers.

David Fuller, Telus president of consumer and small business solutions, said complaints about Telus have declined by 53 per cent in the past three years. Combined with 172 Koodo complaints, which represented 1.52 per cent of the overall total, Telus accounted for just over seven per cent of all complaints to the CCTS.

“I think the number speak for themselves, with the 53 per cent decline significantly lower than our competitors,” said Fuller. “I think Rogers is almost three times our number, Bell is almost five times our number.”

Fuller said despite the decline, there is room for improvement.

“We’re not going to be satisfied until we have none of the complaints,” he said. “That’s the goal we’re on, that’s the journey we’re on.”

“….Our perfect number is zero,” he said. “Because we’ll have been able to handle their problems and concerns long before they felt the need to escalate it to the CCTS.

“We’re going to keep at this until that’s the case.”

Fuller attributed the decline in complaints to a “customers first” policy that extends from the customer service representatives to the executive offices.

“All of our front line agents are motivated to try and resolve customers’ problems before they get to an escalation, let alone an escalation that goes to the CCTS,” he said. “I would say that’s one of the biggest drivers towards why our number has gone down every year.

“Many of these issues never get to the point where they’re escalated to the CCTS because we’ve fixed them for our customers or answered them for our customers before they ever get to that point of frustration.”

Vancouver’s OpenMedia.ca, which has campaigned for more choice and lower prices in Canada’s wireless market, said the report shows customers are still being mistreated. However, OpenMedia.ca representative David Christopher said it is a welcome sign “to see the numbers going down a bit.

“It is a sign the new code of conduct rules are starting to have an impact, they have curbed some of the excesses of past years but there is still much work to be done,” he said.

In a research note Canaccord Genuity analyst Dvia Ghose, said the report’s figures indicate Telus, Shaw MTS and Videotron are “perceived to provide relatively good service.” However, for Bell, Rogers and Wind, “service remains an issue.”

From Ghose’s estimations of complaints per million customer connections:

Telus/Koodo complaints per million: 76 (10.9 million customers connections) down 23.8 per cent

Shaw complaints per million: 29 (3.3 million connections combined telephone and Internet) down 9.4 per cent

MTS complaints per million: 121 (1 million connections) down 34.4 per cent

Videotron complaints per million: 92 (3.2 million connections) up 1.1 per cent

Rogers and Fido complaints per million: 261 (12.6 million connections) down 31.6 per cent

Bell/Virgin/Solo complaints per million: 359 (12.6 million connections) down 6.3 per cent

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